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Amy Florian

CEO, Thanatologist, Grief & Transition Author, Teacher & Coach

Teaching Service Professionals to Genuinely Support Clients Through Loss & Transition

Amy Florian’s influence stretches across the Financial Services Industry. Travelling the world to train professionals to effectively support clients in transition, her work shines a light on the widely overlooked topics of grief and loss.

Amy’s practical, insightful, and inspirational training is crucial in helping financial professionals do the right thing for clients, retain business across generations, and attract new business from less educated competitors.

An acclaimed speaker and expert, she is author of over 150 articles and the books “No Longer Awkward: Communicating with Clients through the Toughest Times of Life” winner of a C-Suite Book Award, and “A Friend Indeed: Help Someone You Love When They Grieve,” which won a 2017 International Book Award. She was recently honored with several other awards for her ground-breaking work including:

  • The 20 Most Creative People in Insurance and Financial Services from LifeHealthPro
  • 2016 Influential Woman in Business from the National Association of Women Business Owners
  • 2017 Women of Influence from the Chicago Business Journal
  • 2017 List of 25 FrontRunners and Influencers from Investment Advisor Magazine

With knowledge based in Thanatology (grief education), psychology, sociology, and neurology, Amy has worked with over 2000 grieving people. Combined, this advanced education and experience provides a unique perspective on how your clients and prospects want to be supported during life transitions.

Amy is a regular contributor in the trade press and appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Forbes, MSN Money, Barron’s, On Wall Street, the Journal of Financial Planning, Investment News, Wealth Management, Financial Advisor, and many others.

Some of the things that Amy teaches
  • Procedures that position you as the go-to advisor for the client and the client’s family
  • Types of grief and loss
  • How grief affects a client’s decision-making and behavior
  • Working with dementia and diminished capacity
  • Handling a client’s terminal diagnosis
  • The mixed experience of retirement and empty nest
  • How to write a condolence card as well as calls and notes for the first year and beyond
  • What to say at services and why
  • Special considerations for women in transition
  • The most effective follow-up steps after death or divorce
  • Grief complications of suicide
  • In office skills for you and your staff
  • Protecting your clients and your firm

 

Amy’s modules for financial, legal, and insurance professionals teach you how to support a grieving client. She draws on the best research and knowledge from the fields of thanatology, neuroscience, sociology, and psychology.

  • Advising Clients Through The Toughest Times Of Life
  • Help! What Do I Say?
  • Wisely Guiding Clients Through Aging And Dementia
  • Shadows Grow Long – When Your Client Is Dying
  • Advising Women Through Life Transitions

These modules are for all people who grieve. Typically, a financial professional brings her in to deliver one of these sessions when they want to provide a powerful and meaningful “value add” for their clients and professional acquaintances in an after-hour session. These are a more personal than her modules for “Financial Professionals” but garner the same high praise. Her clients love it and their clients love it.

  • Communicating and Coping through Life Crises
  • A Friend Indeed
  • Your Life. Your Choice
  • Dementia: What You And Your Loved Ones Need To Know

Few leaders match Amy Florian’s impact. Combining science, personal experience, and extensive education, she’s taught thousands of advisors how to support their aging clientele in loss and transition, re-defining the advisor-client relationship. The industry is taking notice. She is extensively quoted in the trade press. Her conference survey ratings average 9.6 out of 10 (i.e. at Schwab IMPACT, she’s been the 2nd or 3rd highest rated speaker for three consecutive years). As they face the coming “death boom”, many firms, RIA’s, and broker-dealers are positioning themselves for growth by implementing her teachings. She pushes the industry forward in crucial ways

Being that my practice has an emphasis on surviving spouses, I was very interested when the FPA of Illinois invited Amy to our Distinguished Speakers Series. Her presentation on the grief process was so powerful I retained her services as a consultant which has proven instrumental to my practice. Since death is an inevitable element in the financial planning process, your ability to retain surviving spouses and their heirs as clients will be solely dependent on your knowledge and understanding of Amy’s programs. This is a must have.
Edward Gjertsen, FPA National  CFP

I wanted to follow-up on a talk you gave at our regional meeting for Edward Jones earlier this year in Mystic, CT. The discussion about how we talk with clients who are grieving, and help them deal with death (see, I said death, not “loss” or “passing”) was fascinating, and unfortunately, timely. Over the past few months since your talk, and reading your book “No Longer Awkward”, I’ve had several situations with friends and clients where the coaching and tips have really helped me provide better service, and comfort, to clients and friends who were dealing with the aftermath of a spouse or parent who died.
Ron Ellis, Edward Jones  Financial Advisor

Excellent job of integrating facts and figures into the warm fuzzy topic of grieving clients. You get it! You understand grieving…but so do a lot of grief counselors etc. The difference is that you also understand the financial business and the relationship people have with their money. Thank you.
Marla Mason, Presidential Brokerage, Inc,  Senior Financial Consultant

Here are just some of the organizations Amy has helped provide a higher level of service for their clients.

  • The Advisor Group
  • Ameriprise
  • Centaurus
  • Cetera Financial Group
  • Commonwealth
  • CUNA Mutual Group
  • Edward Jones
  • FPA
  • HD Vest
  • Ivy Funds
  • Lincoln Financial Advisors
  • LPL
  • MDRT
  • Mutual of Omaha
  • Prudential
  • Raymond James
  • SagePoint
  • SunTrust
  • TD Ameritrade
  • Wells Fargo
Travels From:  Illinois
City: Chicago
$5,001 to $10,000

Biography

Amy Florian is the CEO of Corgenius, and she combines the best of neuroscience and psychology with a good dose of humor in training professionals to build strong relationships with clients through all the losses and transitions of life.

An acclaimed speaker and expert, she is author of over 100 articles and the book “No Longer Awkward: Communicating with Clients through the Toughest Times of Life”. She was recently named one of the 20 Most Creative People in Insurance and Financial Services for her groundbreaking work, and she also was honored as an “Influential Woman in Business” from the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Amy is a former columnist for the Journal of Financial Planning who has been quoted or featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Advisor, Financial Planning, MSN Money, On Wall Street, ThinkAdvisor, Registered Rep, Investment News, Wealth Management, and Financial Advisor IQ.

Amy holds a Master’s Degree and is a Fellow in Thanatology (the highest level of certification in the field of grief studies).

She taught a graduate class at Loyola University of Chicago for almost 10 years, she has worked with over 2,000 grieving people, and she consults with firms, corporations, and individuals nationwide.

Presentations

When clients cope with death, divorce, retirement, empty nest, or other life transition, your in-office actions determine whether they stay with you.

Understand the unique issues that your clients face, the best ways to talk with them in the office, and how to handle their emotions. Find out how to handle a crying client and whether the stages of grief are applicable.

Gain skills to deal with irrational fears, bring humor into meetings, and help clients make wise decisions in the midst of loss.

Get practical, proven strategies that you can implement immediately.

Have you been taught what to say at the services after a client or client’s family member dies?

Or do you feel awkward, pick up what everyone else does, and perpetuate the mistakes? Turn your dread into confidence.

Learn to avoid six commonly used phrases that can alienate clients and what your clients wish you would say instead. Learn the most effective ways to write condolence cards, whether to send flowers, and the best protocols for follow-up in the first year.

Make a positive difference at a very difficult time, and gain clients for life.

Before a client’s physical or cognitive abilities begin to fail, it is imperative that you have procedures in place to protect them and your firm.

Equip yourself to fully explain the documents that all clients need in order to stay in control while they live and pass on a financial and non-financial legacy when they die.

Find out how these documents can connect you to the next generation in positive ways.

Learn the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia, and how to recognize signs of diminished capacity.

Finally, develop standard office protocols to implement when clients seem to be diminishing.

Guide clients through all stages of life, so you serve them and the next generation.

When your clients receive a terminal diagnosis (as 70% will), do you know what to say in the office and how to facilitate necessary decisions?

Be equipped to bring family members into the process to prevent later problems, distinguish yourself in the field, and promote intergenerational loyalty.

Understand four things people need to give and receive before a death occurs.

Gain practical tips for handling the needs and issues of seriously ill people. Be a resource helping clients live as fully as possible until they take their last breath.

Times of transition, especially death and divorce, send women in motion, looking for an advisor who understands not just their finances but their lives.

Once they find one, they are intensely loyal and also provide a wealth of referrals.

Learn which commonly-used phrases to avoid after death or divorce and what to say instead, how to manage a woman’s greatest fears, questions to ask and images to use, how to handle the widow who can’t decide without her husband, and more.

Come away with practical, tested, and actionable steps you can put into practice today to attract, retain, and better serve women in times of transition and loss.

With exceptional grace, good-natured humor, and rock-solid science, Amy Florian teaches people how to support their friends and family in times of grief, loss, and transition.

Sometimes the losses are devastating—death, divorce, dementia, terminal illness. Other times the grief is triggered by job loss or promotion, the many transitions of aging, the empty nest—the list goes on. Yet few of us, no matter how much we want to help, know what to do or say to support others or ease the pain.

Rather than perpetuate the mistakes that are so common in our society, learn to confidently and effectively be there for your parents, children, siblings, or friends when they are going through tough times in life.

Come learn about grief and loss. Understand the triggers of grief and what is normal. Then gain practical strategies and words that are truly comforting so you can support those you care about to help them heal and be joyful again.

With dignity and grace. That’s how we all say we want the final years of our precious lives to unfold.

Yet many families are weighed down by the issues of aging members, or suffer anguish and guilt when they must make tough decisions. Many of us do not retain control over how we wish to be treated as we age. Very wise people don’t pass along their wisdom and life lessons to descendants. It doesn’t have to be this way.

This informative seminar teaches about the range of documents you, parents, and loved ones need to have in place before there is any kind of issue, including several that are important but not widely understood. Spare your loved ones the burden of making difficult decisions without knowing what you want.

Explore ways to pass on your wisdom and create a legacy that involves more than money. Prepare to live as fully as possibly until you take your last breath.

Most people would prefer to age with a healthy mind in a failing body rather than a failing mind in a healthy body.

Yet we are not given that choice. Instead, the number of people living with dementia is increasing exponentially.

More than 10% of people over 65 have Alzheimer’s disease, and almost half of those 85 and over. This surge will continue for years to come. It is important to get educated now, for yourself and for those you love.

Hear about the latest research on prevention. Find out the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Learn the signs to watch for and available treatments. Become equipped to take essential steps ahead of time to protect yourself and your loved ones, and to help ensure they remain in as much control as possible.

Areas of expertise

  • Thanatology (healing from loss, grief, and life transitions)
  • Effectively help grieving clients
  • Choose to live fully and leave a legacy
  • Understand dementia and aging issues
  • Guide women through transitions
  • Build inter-generational loyalty and referrals
  • Find purpose and meaning throughout life
  • Give clients what a robo can’t
© 2023 Ro Morrison & Assoc.